Even in this instance, however, Mr. Bellisario is merely providing a quotation from another author. The author Bellisario quotes is Cornelius a'Lapide, a Flemish Jesuit Theologian/Exegete who died in 1637. Mr. a'Lapide's commentary is certainly interesting.
One interesting admission from Mr. a'Lapide is that Augustine denied that Peter is the Rock. To combat Augustine, a'Lapide appeals to a mythical Syriac/Hebrew original Gospel of Matthew and claims:
To S. Augustine it is replied that he was misled by his ignorance of the Hebrew and Syriac languages, and, therefore, thought that Petrus was something different from Petra, and that Peter was, as it were, called appellatively from it “rock-like,” although it is clear from the Syriac that Petrus and Petra are the same.Mislead by ignorance! I wonder if Mr. Bellisario will be so bold?
But, since Mr. Bellisario simply quotes from a theologian of his church (who in turn purports to derive his opinions from the fathers), perhaps it is an adequate rebuttal to point to a theologian of our church who has extensively studied the fathers with the benefit of a few hundred additional years of scholarship: (link to "The Patristic Exegesis of the Rock of Matthew 16:18: The Most Extensive Documentation of the Patristic Understanding of the Rock of Matthew 16 in the English Language, Spanning the Third to the Eighth Centuries" by William Webster)
-TurretinFan
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